Green Screen: Promised Land

Several of Global Green's New York Office staff and volunteers attended an advance screening this week of the new movie "Promised Land," which explores the risks and realities of the controversial natural gas mining process known as fracking.
The movie intentionally didn't take a strong stand for or against the process, but instead opts to explore the more nuanced question of how the decision to frack is made, and more importantly the lack of wealth and opportunities available in rural areas that motivate landowners to lease their land for gas extraction. From my perspective, it made a very good (although entirely implied) case for similar leasing for clean, renewal energy, like solar and wind, to help bring wealth to rural areas without jeopardizing their environment. I highly recommend the movie to anyone who is interested in understanding more about the relationships between energy and rural poverty.